Reddit Poker Bot

A Go bot that monitors the r/poker subreddit for new posts in real-time using RSS feeds. No API keys required.

Features

• Real-time monitoring of r/poker (or any subreddit)
• No authentication required (uses public RSS feeds)
• Configurable poll interval and post limits
• Terminal bell notification for new posts
• Shows post title, author, and link

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or later

Quick Start

# Clone and build
go build -o reddit-poker-bot .

# Run with defaults (monitors r/poker)
./reddit-poker-bot

# Or run directly
go run .

That's it! No API keys, no configuration required.

Configuration (Optional)

You can customize behavior with environment variables:

# Monitor a different subreddit
SUBREDDIT=wallstreetbets ./reddit-poker-bot

# Faster polling (every 15 seconds)
POLL_INTERVAL_SECONDS=15 ./reddit-poker-bot

# Combine options
SUBREDDIT=poker POLL_INTERVAL_SECONDS=20 ./reddit-poker-bot

Or use an env file:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env as needed
source .env && ./reddit-poker-bot

Configuration Options

Variable	Default	Description
SUBREDDIT	poker	Subreddit to monitor
POLL_INTERVAL_SECONDS	30	Seconds between RSS polls
POST_LIMIT	25	Number of posts to fetch per poll
USER_AGENT	RedditPokerBot/1.0	User agent for HTTP requests

Output Example

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
NEW POST in r/poker
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Title:  Just hit my first Royal Flush!
Author: u/poker_player123
Posted: 12s ago
Tags:   poker
Link:   https://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comments/abc123/...
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

How It Works

The bot uses Reddit's public RSS feeds (https://www.reddit.com/r/{subreddit}/new.rss) which don't require authentication. It polls the feed at regular intervals and notifies you when new posts appear.

Limitations

• RSS feeds may have a slight delay compared to the API (usually under a minute)
• No access to post scores, comment counts, or other metadata not in RSS
• Rate limiting may apply for very aggressive polling

Extending the Bot

The handleNewPost function in main.go can be extended to:

• Send desktop notifications
• Post to Discord/Slack webhooks
• Log to a database
• Filter by keywords in the title
• Open the post URL in your browser automatically

License

MIT